Written Answers Wednesday 11 October 2006

Scottish Executive

Culture

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth in Westerkirk, Langholm, of the Scottish civil engineer, Thomas Telford, on 9 August 1757.

Ms Patricia Ferguson: The anniversary of the birth of the renowned engineer Thomas Telford will be marked next year as part of Scotland’s Year of Highland Culture, which the Executive is part funding. Telford’s contribution to building roads and bridges across the Highlands and more generally throughout Scotland will be celebrated using a schools project being set up by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Highland 2007.

  The project will take as its focus and inspiration the work of Thomas Telford. It will aim to engage young people in four areas of the Highlands in exploring and celebrating their local built heritage, and in sharing their knowledge with each other and their local communities. 2007 is a good time to undertake this project given that it is both Scotland’s Year of Highland Culture and the 250th anniversary of Thomas Telford’s birth. The project will form one component of The Highland Promise – the cultural pledge to young people in the Highlands.

NHS Funding

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive why the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee has undertaken no public consultation on the current review of budget allocation.

Mr Andy Kerr: The NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) completed on 29 September 2006 a 12 week consultation on refining the resource allocation formula for NHSScotland. The consultation was based on the research undertaken over the past year for the Committee. This research was published in early July on the Committee’s website ( www.nrac.scot.nhs.uk ) alongside an overview document which summarised the key issues, presented options and raised questions in support of the consultation.

  The Committee also ran three Regional Workshops in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Clydebank for interested parties. The Workshops were publicised on the Committee’s public website and anyone was welcome to attend and indeed some MSPs did.

  In view of the complexity of the subject matter, engagement and feedback was primarily sought from NHSScotland, but other interested parties including, for example, the Royal Colleges, BMA and CoSLA were also invited to participate.

NHS Funding

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive why the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee has not conducted an impact analysis of the Arbuthnott funding formula.

Mr Andy Kerr: The NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee has performed an impact analysis on the Arbuthnott Formula and this is presented on the Committee’s website www.nrac.scot.nhs.uk in Technical Report A.

NHS Funding

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will direct the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee to conduct an impact analysis of the Arbuthnott funding formula.

Mr Andy Kerr: I refer the member to the question S2W-28910 answered on 11 October 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

NHS Funding

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will direct the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee to conduct an impact analysis of its proposals for changes to the Arbuthnott funding formula.

Mr Andy Kerr: No. The NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee determines its own work within the remit it was given by Scottish Ministers. The Committee has made it clear that it will consider alterations to the formula and their impact on the basis of the core criteria published on its website, www.nrac.scot.nhs.uk.

NHS Waiting Times

Margo MacDonald (Lothians) (Ind): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time is for a diagnosis of gluten intolerance in each NHS board.

Mr Andy Kerr: The information requested is not available centrally. Information on out-patient waiting times is collected centrally at specialty level only.

Schools

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) rural and (b) special schools have closed in each school year since 1999-2000 and how many times it has used its powers under the Education (Publication and Consultation etc.) (Scotland) Regulations 1998, or any other relevant statutory instruments, to refuse applications from local authorities to close schools.

Peter Peacock: I refer the member to the question S2W-18439 answered on 13 September 2005 which listed all school openings and closures, both local authority and independent, for the calendar years 1995 to 2005, albeit categorised into primary, secondary and special schools. All answers to written PQs are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

  The following table sets out the numbers of rural and special schools closed over a similar period. The figures have been derived from information collected annually by the Scottish Executive Department on the opening and closing of schools.

  The provision of school accommodation is a dynamic process, reflecting the decisions of local authorities across Scotland in response to a wide range of factors, and closure figures need to be considered in that context. For example, a number of the closures set out in the following table are of schools which have merged to form new schools in new buildings, replacing unsatisfactory accommodation in the previous buildings.

  Ministerial consent to the closure of schools is required only in certain prescribed circumstances. We have not withheld consent to any application received from local authorities over this period.

  Number of Rural and Special Schools Closed

  

 Year
 Rural
 Special


 1995
 5
 11


 1996
 12
 1


 1997
 6
 3


 1998
 7
 8


 1999
 4
 2


 2000
 16
 4


 2001
 7
 3


 2002
 6
 5


 2003
 6
 3


 2004
 10
 3


 2005
 13
 3


 2006 – to date
 2
 0



  Notes: (1) Figures include both local authority and independent schools.

  (2) Schools which are both rural and special are included only in the special column.